This invention relates to a hand and body lotion in the form of a gelled dispersion, and while including a water phase and oily materials, is otherwise free of potentially skin irritating emulsifying agents normally present in lotion emulsions.
The concept of producing spheres or beads by means of suspension polymerization techniques is well known in the prior art. An exemplary one of such processes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,809,943, issued Oct. 15, 1957. However, it was found that when a material was added which is a solvent for the monomers, but acts as a precipitant for the resulting polymer, a novel form of bead was provided containing a network of microscopic channels. This discovery is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,415, filed July 18, 1958, and issuing some twenty-two years later on Sept. 23, 1980.
This technology was expanded and the precipitant was variously described in the patent literature as a diluent, porogen, solvent, functional material, and volatile agent. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,026, issued Jan. 12, 1971, porous beads of a diameter less than ten microns are disclosed. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,418,262, issued Dec. 24, 1968, there is described a rigid sponge structure and wherein the porogenic agent employed is an acid. Intermediates in bead form were produced in U.S. Pat. No. 3,509,078, issued Apr. 28, 1970, using polymeric materials as the precipitant material during the in situ suspension polymerization process. The macroporous character of such bead constructions is graphically portrayed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,627,708, issued Dec. 14, 1971. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,637,535, issued Jan. 25, 1972, beads with a sponge structure are said to be capable of being compressed to an imperceptible powder. A rigid porous bead of a trifunctional methacrylate is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,600, issued Oct. 23, 1973. Paraffin wax is used to form the microscopic network of channels in U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,649issued Nov. 2, 1976.
While many of the foregoing U.S. patents relate to ion exchange technology, a bead similar to those previously described is employed as a carrier for enzymes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,309, issued June 17, 1980. U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,327, issued Apr. 28, 1987, describes a macroreticular bead containing a magnetic core. The use of hard crosslinked porous polymeric beads in cosmetics as carriers is taught in U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,240, issued Feb. 9, 1988, wherein various emollients and moisturizers are entrapped therein. Beads having a rigid sponge structure are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,825, issued Sept. 1, 1987, and wherein the beads function as a delivery vehicle for drugs, repellants, and sunscreens.
The foreign patent literature includes West German Offenlegungsschrift No. P 2608533.6, published Sept. 30, 1976, and wherein porous polymeric beads produced by suspension polymerization release perfumes. Canadian Patent No. 1,168,157, issued May 29, 1984, describes hard, discrete, free flowing, bead constructions in which the beads entrap a series of functional materials which can be incorporated into toilet soap, body powder, and antiperspirant sticks. The Canadian Patent, it is noted, is the equivalent of European Patent No. 61,701, issued on July 16, 1986. In European Patent Application Publication No. 0252463A2, published Jan. 13, 1988, there is disclosed a hydrophobic bead which entraps numerous non-cosmetic materials such as pesticides and pheromones. Steroids are entrapped, for example, in the porous beads of PCT International Publication No. WO 88/01164, published on Feb. 25, 1988. Thus, it should be apparent that what began as a simple ion exchange bead has rapidly grown into a technology of varied application.
In accordance with the present invention, however, hydrophobic polymer powders are used in a novel manner in order to constitute an interface between oil and water in a hand and body lotion. Oily materials are entrapped within the powder which is a combined system of particles which can be defined as a lattice, and when the particles are added to a lotion formulation, the need for potentially skin irritating emulsifying agents traditionally employed in emulsion systems is eliminated. As a result, there can be formed dispersions of the particles in a gelled water system, with the particles acting as carrier for the oily ingredients sought to be included as constituents in the lotion formulation.